EDINBURG, Texas –
Jakevion Buckley scored a career-high 32 points and the New Orleans Privateers fought off a second half rally to defeat the UTRGV Vaqueros 85-69 on Monday night at the UTRGV Fieldhouse.
Buckley scored 22 points in the second half to key a late Privateers surge that turned back UTRGV's late rally attempt. The Privateers ended the game by outscoring UTRGV 22-10 over the last six minutes.
The Privateers led by as many as 16 points but the Vaqueros made a late charge. UTRGV on the strength of a 16-4 run, sliced the deficit down to four with 6:32 remaining. The Privateers stayed composed and made seven of their last 11 field goals to pull away again down the stretch to score a victory that moves them to 2-1 in Southland play.
Defense was the theme early as the Privateers held the Vaqueros to just 26.7 percent from the field in the first half. The Vaqueros were shut down inside as well as they only had six points in the paint in the opening 20 minutes.
New Orleans broke open a tie game with a 12-0 stretch over five minutes of play. The run started on a
Coleton Benson three and gave the Privateers a 26-14 lead with just under six minutes left in the half. UTRGV did not get any closer than within nine points for the rest of the half and New Orleans led 35-24 at the break.
The Privateers continued to steadily build on their lead during the early minutes of the first half. At one point, New Orleans was 6-of-7 from the field in a stretch from the 16:30 mark to 11:30 left in the second half. At the end of that stretch, the Privateers led 59-43.
Koree Cotton scored 24 points and added eight rebounds with three blocks. Filip Brankovic scored 12 points and the Vaqueros shot 55 percent from the field in the second half.
INSIDE THE BOX
Buckley went 12-of-20 from the field and added five rebounds, four assists and two steals.
Coleton Benson scored 12 points and
MJ Thomas finished with eight points and 10 rebounds. New Orleans scored 50 points in the second half and shot 58.1 percent from the field over the last 20 minutes.
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